


Adventures In Babysitting

by donamorte



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Babysitting, Fluff, M/M, Make a wish, Star Gazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 10:37:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18939217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donamorte/pseuds/donamorte
Summary: Steve considered the situation. Nancy’s parents would be out of town to visit a sick aunt. She wanted to go to a concert in the city with her boyfriend, who once beat the shit out of Steve and then stole his girl. And she needed him to babysit her brother for the night. Only a really stupid person would’ve said yes.“Okay,” he told her.The one in which Steve has to babysit the kids and he asks Billy for help.





	Adventures In Babysitting

Steve should’ve listened when people told him he shouldn’t be friends with his ex. It’s just a terrible idea, you’ll end up having to babysit her little brother and his friends because you’re friends with her and you promised.

“Isn’t he too old to need a babysitter?” He had asked her.

“After everything that happened over the last couple of years, I’m surprised my mom even lets us out of the house. She won’t let me go if I can’t find him a babysitter. Steve, please.”

Steve considered the situation. Nancy’s parents would be out of town to visit a sick aunt. She wanted to go to a concert in the city with her boyfriend, who once beat the shit out of Steve and then stole his girl. And she needed him to babysit her brother for the night. Only a really stupid person would’ve said yes.

“Okay,” he told her.

So there he was, sitting at the Wheeler’s living room, watching TV while Mike finished his homework. It wasn’t so bad, actually.

“Okay, I’m done. I’m gonna call the party over,” he informed Steve and collected his books.

“Uh, what now?”

“Mom said I could have them over if I finished my homework. I finished my homework,” Mike said like it was obvious. Steve had not been informed of that at all.

“No way! I did not agree to take care of a pack of brats, only one.”

“You don’t have to take care of us, we saved your ass like three times already!”

“Hey, language.” Mike rolled his eyes at him.

“I’m calling them.”

Steve just gaped as he left the room. Kids these days had no respect.

Lucas was the first one to get there. He and Mike went straight to the basement without so much as a hello. Then Will showed up with his mom, Steve opened the door for him. He greeted Steve and went off to the basement too. At least he said hi, Steve thought. Finally, Dustin showed up, he hugged Steve as soon as he opened the door.

“Hey Steve, Mike told me you were babysitting. Why didn’t you tell me you were babysitting us?”

“Yeah, well, this is not exactly what I wanted to be doing on a saturday night.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll cheer you up, buddy. You’re gonna love it! Are they downstairs?” And just like that he left too.

Steve sat back on the couch thinking it was over, but the doorbell rang again. He opened the door to a very excited Eleven, or Jane - he really didn’t know which name she was going by these days.

“Hi. Is Mike home?” She asked politely. He looked past her to see Hopper watching them from his car and Steve waved as he left.

“Hi. Yes, he is down…” He interrupted himself as Billy’s camaro parked in front of the house. Steve’s life couldn’t get any better.

“Max!” Eleven smiled at the other girl as she hurried to the house.

“Hey, Steve.” Max grabbed Eleven by the hand and dragged her into the house. No respect.

Steve looked over at the camaro. Billy was blowing smoke out his window while staring at Steve, who raised a hand to greet him. He got out of the car and walked towards him. It was pretty warm, so, just as Steve, the other boy was wearing shorts that showed a lot of his legs. Steve loved summer.

“We gotta stop meeting like this, Harrington.” He gave Steve his flirtatious smile.

They weren’t fighting anymore but they weren’t friends either. It was difficult and too confusing to think about what they were now.

“Yeah, your obsession with me is getting out of hand, man.” Billy laughed and passed his tongue over his lower lip. Steve swallowed hard.

“So you and Nancy are getting back together?”

“What? No!” Steve burst out. “No, I’m just babysitting, as a favor…”

Billy laughed and shook his head. Somewhere behind him, Steve heard something fall. He took a deep breath before turning his attention back inside the house.

“What is going on in there?” Mike popped his head through the kitchen door.

“Uh, nothing,” he said, looking guilty.

Max came out of the kitchen holding a bunch of snacks that barely could fit in her arms.

“What are you guys doing with all that? Are you feeding an army?” Pleaded Steve.

“We’re hungry!”

“Maxine, put that back, you’re not in your house. And I know your mom, Wheeler, I know she didn’t let you eat all of that,” Billy said from the doorway.

Max rolled her eyes and went back into the kitchen with Mike. They got out a few moments later with just a couple bags of chips.

“That’s better.” Max gave them the finger and she marched down to the basement with Mike.

Steve turned to Billy with his mouth open in shock.

“How did you do that?” Billy stared blankly at him. “You can control those little monsters!”

“Well, they recognize authority.” Billy grinned.

“Can you please stay and help me watch the little shits?" 

Billy laughed.

"Not a chance.”

“You gotta help me, man. I still have like four hours with them, they’re gonna kill me. They’ll listen to you! Please!” Begged Steve. Billy eyed him up and down.

“And what do I get if I do this?" 

Steve tried to remain calm. 

"Gratitude?” Billy laughed again, apparently Steve was really amusing.

“I’m sure you’ll think of something, pretty boy,” he said and walked in.

Steve led Billy to the living room. Maybe he shouldn’t have invited him, that wasn’t even his house. They sat far apart on the couch in a awkward silence while Dancing In The Dark by Springsteen played on the TV. Steve looked over at Billy, sitting made his shorts go a little up, showing even more of his legs. His thighs were thick and he was really tanned from working at the pool all day. …I’m dying for some action, I’m sick of sitting right here trying to write this book… Steve focused so hard on the TV, it could’ve exploded.

“You like him?” 

“What?!” Steve asked, startled.

“Springsteen,” he indicated the TV. 

“Oh. Yeah, he’s cool. Do you like him?”

“Yeah, he is fucking awesome.”

“Really? Doesn’t seem like your type.” 

“He is exactly my type,” stated Billy. 

Steve stared at him, he had no idea if Billy meant what he thought he did. The other boy kept watching the clips on the TV as if nothing had happened. Steve was probably reading too much into it. It was just fucking music, nothing else. They commented on every song that came up. Billy hated almost everything, Steve was surprised to learn he liked Queen quite a lot. Also, he hated Wham! which seemed ironic considering how much he looked like George Michael. Steve turned the volume on maximum during Careless Whisper just to spite him. 

When the song was over they heard a lot of noises coming from downstairs. 

“Should we be worried?” Billy asked. 

Steve sighed and got up to see what the brats were doing, Billy followed behind him. They went down to find the kids screaming at each other, they didn’t even notice them there. 

“Hey, hey! What’s going on here?!” He yelled over them. 

The whole party stopped talking and stared back in silence, looking really guilty. They were definitely up to something. 

“Billy?” Max glared at him.

“What the fuck is he doing here?” Mike asked.

“Language!” Steve said like a mom. “He is my back up, ‘cause you’re all a nightmare. What are you guys doing down here?” 

“Nothing!” They all said, clearly hiding something. 

“Why do you have backpacks on?” Billy noticed.

All the brats had backpacks on and they all looked like they were on their way out. 

“See? I told you he was gonna find out!” Dustin blurted. 

“Shut up, Dustin!” Lucas hit him in the arm and they started the most horrible wrestle Steve had ever seen. 

“Enough!” Demanded Billy and they immediately stopped. “You”, he pointed at Will who turned bright red “Talk.” 

“W-we’re going to the junkyard… T-to watch the meteor shower.” 

“I can’t believe you were going to sneak out on me!” Steve drew his hands to his hips and stared at each of their faces.

“We were going to invite you,” Dustin explained. 

“No, we weren’t!” Said Mike, scrunching his face. Steve liked him less by every second. 

“It doesn’t matter, you’re not going,” he stated and just like that the fuss started again. Billy yelled to quiet them down. 

“Billy, please,” Max pleaded and Billy grinned. 

“And what do I get from that?” 

Half an hour later they were all headed to the junkyard. Max promised Billy she would wash the dishes for a month if he let them go. Billy had betrayed him for a really terrible deal. They were walking side by side, following their pack of pre-teens. Billy was laughing at their stupid fights and bickering, he seemed to be enjoying himself. 

Steve couldn’t relax, though. Walking around in the dark like that reminded him of last year when they were hunting monsters. He kept looking around all the time, half expecting that something would jump from the dark and kill them. If they all died it’d be his fault for being so stupid. He didn’t even bring the damn nailed bat.

The junkyard was almost exactly like it was the last time he was there. Even the tires, barrels and metals parts they used to secure the bus hadn’t been moved. Some of them had huge scratch marks. The kids seemed unaffected by all of it. They found an open spot between the ruined cars and spread a towel that barely fitted all of them. It was cute how uncoordinated and messy they were. 

“Yeah, I’m not doing that,” said Billy. He looked around for a second and then started climbing the bus.

“What are you doing?!” Billy kept climbing, Steve tried not to look at his perfect shaped ass in those ridiculously tight shorts. Billy reached the top of the bus and stared down at him, lighting up a cigarette. 

Steve looked at his kids, Dustin had brought a fucking telescope somehow and they were all fighting over it. Maybe they could actually survive without him, so he went for the bus too. Only he went inside and climbed the stair to the roof. 

Billy was sitting with his back agains the tires, legs spread along the bus. 

“Didn’t know there were fucking stairs,” he said, making room so Steve could sit beside him and still have a good view of the kids. Billy offered him the cigarette.

“Nah, I think you’re just a show off,” teased Steve and Billy laughed. 

It was a real laugh this time, his head fell back and his eyes squinted, it was really cute. Steve felt all warm inside and he couldn’t blame it on the smoke. He looked over to the kids to calm himself down. The kids were taking turns to look through the telescope, they seemed really excited, looking up and pointing to the stars. 

“Are you okay?” Billy asked him and took the cig back. “You’ve been a little off since we left the house.”

“I’m fine. It’s just… I don’t like to be out here, some weird things have been happening in this town.” That was the simplest he could put it without bringing monsters and secret labs into the conversation. 

“Yeah. Hawkins turned out to be way more interesting than I thought.”

“Do you miss your hometown?” 

Billy took one last drag from his cigarette before throwing it out.

“Yeah… There was this beach we would go to, it was a bit outside of town so it was pretty quiet and you could see the stars perfectly. They shone really bright and they seemed so close you’d think you could reach them. The stars look smaller here.” 

He looked really sad all of a sudden. Steve would bring the stars down if it meant he could see Billy laughing like he was before. Laughing for him. 

“Well, we might not have that but we got James Dean, so jot that down.” 

And just like that Billy was laughing again, maybe making him laugh was Steve’s superpower. Billy rested his head on the tires and looked up with a smile on his lips. Steve smiled too. 

“Hey, I think I saw one.”

“One what?” Asked Steve.

“A shooting star,” he explained. 

“You gotta make a wish.” 

Billy closed his eyes for a moment. Steve studied his face: his big and dark eyelashes; the freckles on his nose from sun exposure; the shape of his pink lips; that stupid mustache. He took it all in. Billy was beautiful. When Billy opened his eyes Steve didn’t look away. 

“What did you wish for?” Steve quavered. 

“If I tell you it won’t come true,” he replied. 

Billy held the front of Steve’s shirt and drawed him closer, locking their lips together. They kissed for only a second before Billy pulled away, but it was enough for Steve to loose all his remaining brain cells. He leaned in and kissed Billy again, moving his hand to the back of the other boy’s neck to keep him there. That one lasted some good ten seconds before they heard metal creaking and quickly jerked apart. 

“Hey guys,” Dustin’s voice echoed inside the bus, “I brought you snacks. I’ve got Reese’s, nougat, Magic Middles…”

His head popped through the hatch behind them. 

“Which one do you guys want?” 

Dustin didn’t seem traumatized so Steve guessed he hadn’t seen them. He tried to slow his breathing enough to answer. He looked over at Billy who seemed really relaxed. 

“Gimme the reese’s,” he told Dustin. When Billy reached out to take it, Steve noticed his hand was shaking. 

“Steve?” Dustin called. 

“Nougat is fine.” Dustin smiled, satisfied. 

“Have you guys seen any shooting stars?” 

“About a million, kid,” Billy chuckled, sticking his tongue out. Steve smiled at him. 

Dustin stared between the two like they had lost their minds. Maybe they did.


End file.
